Weaning African Grey to pellets

[Yogitea]

Hi all!

I recently purchased a baby Grey and the bird shop is weaning him to a seed diet. He is still receiving hand feedings twice daily and I've asked them to wean him to a pellet diet. They are saying they can't do this because he's already used to seed and are afraid a change now will 'stunt his growth.' Now this seems nuts to me because they can just weight him daily and voila....we know if there' s a problem but they highly recommend against weaning him to pellets now that they've started with seeds. Does this seem legit? Or are they just being difficult? Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!

[marie83]

They are being difficult IMO, weaning is when birds generally try more types of food than any other time in their lives. They should be introducing as many foods (within reason) as possible to ensure a non-picky bird when older.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Perhaps now they've started weaning to seed they don't want to undo the weaning. If they'd done it from the beginning it wouldn't have been so much of a problem. Now it may be better to keep weaning on the seeds but introduce new foods as soon as possible like fresh fruits and veggies but also try some smaller pellets.

I also believe Harrison's do a mash which can be mixed with water and the hand feeding mixture. Perhaps they would be willing to mix a little of that in? I'm not sure if that would be ok- I'd get an Avian Vet opinion.

Your baby will still be young when you get him so there's no reason why you can't wean him onto pellets yourself, although let him settle at least a few weeks before trying. As well as pellets you will need to offer fresh fruits and vegetables as well as cooked rice and soaking mix (pulses, beans, lentils, quinoa all soaked or cooked) The pellets are part of a wider diet.

Look up what percentage of the diet would be best for an african grey and look up what vitamins specifically a grey should have and then find other ways of providing those through fresh foods. Pellets are great for filling the gaps you miss with the fresh foods

[feathermum]

as someone who works @ a pet store (though very diffrent) when we are raising a bird & a person buys the bird before the weening prosses, we give them a choise as to what they want them weaned on to. we also work w/ a Avain nutrionest,to help w/ advice. However,if someone buys a bird while we are already weaning, then we do stay w/ that diet so bird does not regress, but @ 2 feedings a day they'r a bit older & should be introducing diffrent foods anyway. Is he eating food well right now? or is he really still just picking? that might be a reason i guess. everyone has their owm oppnion. my own is that i don't like pellets. not an all seed fan either

[Yogitea]

Thank everyone for your replies. They are refusing to wean him to pellets because they believe the 'best method' is to wean him to seeds and pellets and then have the owner wean to pellets at home. He is getting fruits and veggies as well which is good. To go through a second weaning process at home doesn't sound like very much fun. They went so far as to say that if I didn't like their weaning method, then they are concerned about the quality of home he is going to. I'm a bit insulted by this as one can imagine. I have no problem with their weaning method in general, just asked that they wean my bird to pellets since that's what he'll be getting at home. Alas...I'm a pediatrician working in Haiti for the month so this whole conversation is happening through my boyfriend...who knows how misconstrued it's gotten. So I will let them wean however they want, wean him how I want when he comes home, and never buy another bird from them again

[Eric&Rebecca]

Well eating a pelleted predominant diet at a GREY young age is suggested in some research to be a bit too much too soon for their poor systems, pellets are very rich in terms of nutrients but the nutritional needs as a baby are different to those of a growing bird. There are baby weaning pellets which do exist which would probably be fine but even then there are questions about them so maybe this store is on one side of the debate- you can't really blame them for that. If you want your bird on pellets because you think its best you can still do that so its not a massive problem.

You mention it doesn't sound like much fun but neither is getting them to eat fruits and veggies or anything else regualrly that bits even been done for you! You will need to feed a vast variety of foods as well as the pellets aren't a miracle cure/diet so you're going to have to do some form of weaning anyway. Pellets even say on their packets to feed as part of a natural diet and Greys have very specific nutritional needs as I understand which pellets won't cover as well as with other species. I would even goes as far as to say from what I've heard from other Grey owners, the predominantly fresh/raw diet would be more appropriate combined some pellets and seeds. You will need to research exactly what he needs but I'm sure a good avian vet could provide a diet plan for you. As could someone on this forum. I believe Grey_Moon has some excellent advice on diets as does Parajita for larger birds like a grey.

There's a lot of things that aren't fun about having a bird :p but they are necessary. Perhaps I just read that the wrong way... If I have I apologise. Birds are extremely hard work especially a CAG or TAG. I have two cockatiels and they were weaned to seeds and fruit and veg (a different bird I know) but I do happen to agree from the research I've read. It might be more convenient for you to have the pellet bit already done but I would read some articles about weaning process first.
Some of the best breeders I've been to don't do this so perhaps there is a reason why but they don't have the ability to explain.

I think their doing a good job if they are weaning and using fresh foods. I'd rather do pellet conversion myself so you can research what pellets would be best and I'd know everything about my bird's process. Also weaning to pellets take a long time (took my cockatiel nearly a 6 months). That's another reason maybe they don't want to do it.

There's so many advantages about doing this stage yourself rather than getting someone else to do it for you our of convenience.Its not quite the same process as weaning from baby food to seeds as weaning from seeds to pellets.

[marie83]

There is a big difference between you asking them to feed exclusively pellets and just feeding pellets as a small part of whatever else they may be feeding to make things easier later on and less stressful for the bird. Whatever anyone says , I know from experience that introducing new foods later on can be a big headache, it will be easier as your bird will still be young. In its first few weeks with you you should be feeding familiar foods as the bird will already be stressed, introducing pellets, fruit, veg etc as part of the weaning process will make things one hell of alot easier. Even if they refuse point blank to mearly introduce the bird to pellets it is important to minimize stress to the bird by converting over to pellets one the bird is fully settled and not before, unless of course the bird expresses interest beforehand- what I am saying is dont force the conversion in the early days but you would be ok to offer them in a bowl and see what happens.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I'd be inclined to agree with Marie83. What I said is just an opinion of why maybe they don't want to do it. The pellet stage should be approached as she suggested but do look up what ratios of each type of food is best; i.e how much pellets, how much fresh, how much pulses, how much seeds and grains etc

That will be your end goal and it will take a while to get there but it'll be a rewarding and valuable experience to learn this for yourself. It will be frustrating at times but you'll come out a more experienced owner. Perhaps look on this as a silver lining for your bird owning experience, once you can do this its something you wouldn't have to worry about doing again and something you can use to expand your birds diet to a wide variety of things

At this stage its not going to do him tremendous harm providing he's eating well at has at least some fruits and veggies (although this will be expanded over time). He'll still be young when you get him after all. Starting him as Marie83 suggested shouldn't be a problem.